


On Shapeshifters

by AoifeDopp



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Dream Team SMP Roleplay (Video Blogging RPF), F/M, Hearing Voices, Memory Loss, Shapeshifting, Short One Shot, more specifically character backstory, well sorta shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:36:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29860284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AoifeDopp/pseuds/AoifeDopp
Summary: Quick little backstories for Technoblade, Fundy, and Sally the Salmon, centered around their status as shapeshifters and how that defines them and their struggles. Vaguely canon compliant, but as with most Dream SMP stuff you gotta expect some additions to make their bits make sense in universe.
Relationships: Wilbur Soot/Sally the Salmon
Kudos: 5





	On Shapeshifters

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing fanfic in YEARS (first time on Ao3), and as such my first Dream SMP story. Additional notes on my fanon takes at the end, comments and kudos are appreciated :)

To Fundy, shapeshifting was an amusement. As a young lad, he spent countless hours as the little fox boy, exploring the woods in a form that kept him safe, ignored by the monsters taking refuge from the all-seeing gaze of the sun. He was always an outsider, though, neither fully a man or fully fox, always keeping just enough distance to stay cognizant of who he truly is. That was the last lesson his mother had given him and he took it to heart more than most. The last lesson before she...

Inheriting the powers of his mother gave him a freedom most kids weren’t afforded, but honestly it wouldn’t have mattered. Fundy knew that he could do just about anything, and his father wouldn’t take notice. Always obsessing over whatever new cause or manifesto he had fronted, and rarely paying attention to his flesh and blood. It didn’t matter much, Fundy would think to himself. Nature was his caretaker, and the rare visits to the Greater SMP were his teachers.

It was one day during his sixteenth year that he found he couldn’t leave the form of the little fox boy. He was still able to grow with age, walk upright, be himself, he eventually came to learn. It took Wilbur a week to even notice, and his only reaction was a weary smile and a short sentence; _“This doesn’t change anything, my little champion.”_ His words were supposed to be encouraging, but they rang hollow. And so, he left home. It wasn’t intentional at first, but a trip became a week, a week became a month, and a month became a new life. It was only the founding of L’manberg that brought him home once again. It felt like his father didn’t even notice.

### 

____

### 

____

To Technoblade, shapeshifting was survival. His life was only war for the longest time, the voices urging him forward to kill, kill, kill. Sometimes, he could resist them, but these moments of lucidity were only filled with regret. The voices screamed, while his own lamented that this was his fate. More often than not, however, the voices could only be satisfied with adrenaline, with blood, with the arenas that served as his pastures. He was the boar among the worms, feasting with ease. He was The Blade.

It was through meeting Phil that he had found respite. A chance encounter in the Nether realm brought the two together, but traveling together made them close. Phil taught him patience, and through patience the voices quieted, mostly. For the first time since he was a child, Technoblade felt human. Some of the features of The Blade carried over, mostly scars and souvenirs from years of violence. His teeth were permanent tusks. But overall, he was human, and to his own surprise alive. He was Techno.

It was coming to the aid of Phil’s son that brought The Blade back to the forefront of his soul. The voices were back with a vengeance, but could be controlled. Techno utilized The Blade against inherently unjust hierarchies, like those that controlled the arenas, but the voices didn’t care where the violence came from. So long as it was there. His retaliation on November 16th, his arrest and ‘execution’, and the Doomsday War were all the work of The Blade. Techno wanted peace, retirement, a new life of relative serenity with Phil around, but nations forced his hand; the voices demand blood when The Blade is unsheathed, and his enemies wouldn’t accept the scabbard.

### 

____

### 

____

To Sally, shapeshifting was freedom. Traveling the waterways as a salmon satiated what she had thought to be an unquenchable wanderlust. She travelled far and wide, never looking hard or staying in one place too long. All she needed to be happy was to keep moving. All she needed, that is, until she met a young idealist in the wilds of the Greater SMP. A vaguely unkempt man fished her from the river, and she changed back to human form to reprimand him. To him, it was love at first sight. To her, it was some guy who had fished her out of the river in a bucket. Yet, something amused her about the now soaked (and thoroughly apologetic) man. She found herself drawn back to the same stream, visiting the man with a consistency that surprised even herself.

For the first time in her life, Sally decided to settle down. She found it hard to be away from the water for long stretches, but she spent as long as she could bare with Wilbur. She loved his humour, his caring nature, his dreams for a brighter future. Eventually, she found herself with child, and a few months later held Fundy for the first time. He was the light of their life, their little champion, and Sally loved the family she had found. In a way, this was everything she wanted. She didn’t realize how badly she wanted to settle down after years of running. She was safe. She was happy. But this was not to last. 

Her wanderlust finally caught up to her when Fundy was twelve years old. Her grip on her human form was slipping, and she needed to spend more time in the water than ever before. The air was suffocating, her memories faltered, and she couldn’t stand seeing the pain in Wilbur’s eyes whenever he put her in the river, barely remembering her family. She knew she had to leave. Her last day at home, Sally warned her son of the risks of changing form. She didn’t tell either of them what she had planned, but she knew that Wilbur was expecting it. When he eventually fell asleep, she stepped into the river, and changed out of her human form for the last time.

As the days and months and years went by, her mind kept slipping. Faces, voices, memories all disappeared, leaving only feelings and sorrow behind. She refused to forget her champion, but all she could remember was his title. She would never return to that river again, but occasionally did end up in L’manberg’s borders. For some reason she felt pride and happiness, but also a sense of sorrow. She had lost something, but couldn’t quite make out what it was.

To Sally, shapeshifting was freedom. Now, it is only a curse.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea if there's a fanon interpretation of how shapeshifting works, this is just the theory I have. In more depth, I think shapeshifting is a bit of an abberant trait. It can be genetic, but for a lot it just sort of happens to them. There are three "stages" of shapeshifting, those being full animal, half animal, and human. I think that after a point shapeshifting becomes harder and harder to do, with your default stage being the one you've spent the most time in. For Fundy, this happened early in life, and so he's stuck as the fox boy. For Sally, it happened far later. It hasn't technically happened to Technoblade yet, but he spends most of his time as anime!Techno rather than pigform, only changing shape when he's essentially an avatar for the voices/Blood God. 
> 
> For the most part I see the members of the SMP as their real life ages, with a few exceptions. Phil is canonically very old and very immortal. I aged up Wilbur so that him being a father to a teenager actually makes sense, and I feel Techno is around his age, maybe slightly older.
> 
> Sorry Will, but I despise the concept of Sally being an actual salmon, so this is a workaround, and a way to make her absence make in universe sense. Also I like to think "Never met a salmon I didn't eat" is inaccurate. Ghostbur only remembers happy things, so his memories of Sally are the years they spent together, not of her disappearance. 
> 
> I'm at Aoife Dopp on Youtube, and aoife_dopp on Twitter and Twitch, if you wan't to check out more of my work. At the time of writing I haven't posted anything, but I'm gonna be recording music in the coming months, including DSMP fansongs based on Season 2 characterizations, so that's cool. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
